Google wafts $200M to Texas wind farm

The 161-megawatt Spinning Spur Wind Project in Oldham County boasts 70 Siemens wind turbines of 2.3 megawatts each. Google says the farm produces enough juice to power more than 60,000 homes in the U.S.

Google has made a $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in West Texas that it says produces enough juice to power more than 60,000 homes in the U.S.

In a blog post today, the company said that the 161-megawatt Spinning Spur Wind Project in Oldham County boasts 70 Siemens wind turbines of 2.3 megawatts each, which started operating on a full-time basis just before the end of the year.

Built by developer EDF Renewable Energy, the facility has contracted its output to SPS, a utility serving Texas and New Mexico.

Google said in the post: "We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets. We're also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector."

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Spinning Spur, Google said, joins 10 other renewable energy investments the company has made, including a backbone connecting 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines along the Atlantic coast, as well as Shepherds Flat, which Google says is one of the world's largest wind farms.

"Altogether," Google says, "the renewable energy projects we've invested in are capable of generating 2 gigawatts of power." How much power is that? Google points to a graphic (embedded here) as an illustration -- you can click the image to check out a larger version.